Group 4 of 4
A capsule hotel is furniture more than architecture. That makes the floor it sits on the interesting part: a bathhouse block, a riverside building, a conserved shophouse, a commercial storey with the shell still showing.
Tokyo, Japan
A city block floor in Ebisu previously in ordinary commercial use, in a district built around public bathing and after-work drinking.
The floor plate and the bathhouse logic: the wet rooms are the centre of the plan and the sleeping capsules are arranged around them.
Capsule racks, a sauna and bath suite, and a lounge, all fitted into an existing shell.
You wash first and sleep second, which is the older order of things in this part of Tokyo.
Tokyo, Japan
An older Asakusa block near the Sumida, of the kind put up for workers and short-stay visitors rather than tourists.
The block's structure and its narrow floor plates, which set how many capsules fit and where the corridors run.
Steel capsule racks, a bath floor and a viewing room facing the river.
Tight corridors, a lot of people, and a river view that the building was already positioned for.
Singapore, Singapore
A conserved shophouse: a long, narrow, party-walled building type built for a shop below and living space above.
The shophouse envelope — the front, the depth, the internal airwell — because conservation rules do not allow it to be lost.
Capsules built as free-standing joinery inside the shell, so that nothing new is fixed to the protected fabric.
You sleep inside a piece of cabinetry that has been slid into a much older room.
Los Angeles, United States
Commercial premises — storefront and office floors rather than any residential building.
The open shell: ceiling services, structure and the full width of the floor are all left visible.
Open bunk-style pods with no doors, plus shared desks and kitchen, arranged as one room.
There is no privacy by design. It reads as a workplace that people sleep in, which is close to what it was.